


Talus

by Spooky-Spaghetties (Windershins)



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Original Trilogy, Star Wars Prequel Trilogy
Genre: Meta, Metafiction, Nonfiction, Self-Harm
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-05-09
Updated: 2019-05-09
Packaged: 2020-02-29 05:36:19
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 656
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18772261
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Windershins/pseuds/Spooky-Spaghetties
Summary: A compilation of nonfictional Star Wars meta posts originally published to my Tumblr, sith-shame-shack.tumblr.com, from 2017 to now. This is 90% about Darth Vader; while other characters are discussed, it's mostly in relation to Vader.Transferred here for 1. your enjoyment, 2. to make discussion easier, and 3. to preserve it beyond the inevitable death of its original platform.A talus slope or deposit is a pile of rock debris at the base of a geographic formation. It's also called scree, but "Scree" isn't a sufficiently pretentious title.





	1. definitely not in line with office culture

Man, one characterization of Vader that I love but rarely see is: Vader as deeply religious. 

Because from an in-universe perspective, that’s so weird! Vader and the viewer know that the Force is not a matter of faith, and that it does in fact give him powers up to and including _the ability to accurately see the future_ , but the galaxy at large doesn’t know that and his fellow Imperials definitely don’t. I think the point of Motti, besides introducing Vader’s ruthlessness toward even his own faction, is to demonstrate that Force use is not just a known factor of the Star Wars universe. 

In that context, Vader is inexplicable. Not only does he have uncanny and inscrutable powers, like those the murdered Jedi are rumored to have had, but he is the only figure in the Imperial military who seems to talk about his religion. At least among the military leadership, he’s not secretive about it; if he’s got to leave a conversation to hunt down Obi-wan, he’ll just come right out and say that he has supernatural knowledge which he needs to go address now. He wields a banned, antique Jedi weapon. He has several times invoked the Force while speaking to his officers. 

In-universe, the general public doesn’t know why he’s like this! The Empire isn’t a theocracy; besides banning the Jedi religion, Emperor Palpatine doesn’t really seem to make a lot of overtly religious policy choices, and I don’t think the general public knows if he subscribes to any specific faith. Except for people who know what the Sith are, Vader just seems like an extremely devout sole adherent to a religion that is all but dead, its other practitioners hunted for treason. He’s like if the president had a weird murder pet who was a Catholic nun, only Catholicism was banned and all other church officials had been murdered by the government.


	2. Ask: self-harm

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Anonymous asked: Does Vader self-harm?

Anonymous asked: Does Vader self-harm?

Definitively yes, though maybe not how you’d think. 

It is (or used to be) canonical that Vader’s religious practice as a Sith requires him to be in a state of pain and rage, which he frequently self-induces by re-living his worst memories during meditation. I think that amounts to emotional self-harm; he’s constantly re-traumatizing himself, submerging himself in vivid memories of horrors he’s committed and endured. He forces himself to remember murdering Padme, being mutilated on Mustafar, Obi-wan screaming “I loved you” and leaving him to burn. He does this purposefully, constantly, as part of Dark Sider religious practice. He can’t recover, even a bit, because he’s constantly ripping those wounds back open in order to parlay that agony into supernatural power. I have always headcanoned that there are two memories he can’t bear to confront, the slaughter of the younglings and the death of his mother, but everything else is on the table to just stew in, like a waking nightmare. 

There’s physical stuff, too: my initial impulse was that this is mostly neglect, like failing to have wounds addressed in a timely manner or at all, but honestly with how unpleasant medical care is for him, he could just as easily seek out assistance as a way to hurt himself. I kind of think that sometimes, if he needs the extra boost or is feeling especially self-loathing, he just moves a little wrong, puts just a bit too much stress on something painful, pulls at the scars. He’s got a hundred small hurts, under his armor, sores that won’t heal and stress fractures and inflamed spots; it’s easier to bother them than it is to leave them alone. I think sometimes he even just does it reflexively. 

Overwork is another one of those borderline ones, like, sure maybe he’s just taking hits of adrenaline to stay conscious enough to continue whatever awful crime he’s doing because he _wants_ to, but maybe it’s also because refusing to rest is another means of self-punishment.


End file.
